Colne pupils make drivers apologise for speeding (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Colne pupils make drivers apologise for speeding

4:38pm Friday 23rd November 2012 in Pendle By Lisa Woodhouse, Assistant picture editor

ASHAMED motorists apologised to young children for driving carelessly near to their school as part of a road safety scheme.

Around 70 pupils from years five and six at Park Primary in Colne quizzed drivers who were pulled over by police for not wearing seatbelts, using their mobile phone at the wheel or speeding.

The event coincided with National Road Safety week and was organised by Nicola Sheridan, a school learning mentor at the Rutland Street school.

She said: “Speeding cars and congestion are a problem near the school, which make it very dangerous for the children.

“We wanted to make drivers more aware, especially near school buildings, that there are child- ren around and they need to think more about the way they are driving. The children spoke to around 20 drivers who were stopped by police over a two-hour period on Byron Road.

“The drivers were given the option to speak to the children and every driver was extremely apologetic and ashamed.

“Pupils asked drivers questions like ‘How would you feel if you hurt a child?’, ‘Why were you driving in that way?’ and ‘How can you concentrate on the road when you are on your phone?’ “All the drivers told the children that they had brought home the road safety message and that they wouldn’t drive like that again because they would remember the children’s comments for a long time.

“The children gave them a road safety poster created by pupils to take away with them.”

Nicola said each child had designed a poster in the run-up to the event and the winning design, by nine-year-old Alycia Mchallam, was chosen to duplicate and give to drivers.

It is also hoped the poster can be enlarged and hung on the school railings as a reminder.

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